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Yes it does. However, part of the recognition is for **** that doesn't even happen anymore like mafia/mob stuff. I've never run into someone in my world travels who had never heard of Chicago. They'd either equate it to the Bulls/Michael Jordan (and more up to date people - Derrick Rose) or Al Capone, usually. Perhaps old but they still are aware the city exists and can associate it to something.
Last year I was in Istanbul, Malaysia, and Singapore. Even at various malls in Kuala Lumpur were Derrick Rose and Bulls ads up and there's a pizza chain in Turkey called "Pizza Bulls" that uses the Bulls' logo. Every single time in Turkey it came out I was from Chicago, they'd instantly mention how they watch the Bulls on TV. My ex girlfriend's family was from Malaysia and her dad knew all about the early 20th century mafia/Al Capone crap and how it related to the history of the city. I was in Rome less than a month ago and the same thing - when I mentioned I was from Chicago, people there could actually name recent things about the city (not necessarily Bulls or Al Capone). I've literally never run into anybody overseas who's been like "Never heard of that city."
And in the end, I'm not trying to say that Chicago has more international name recognition than SF, but if you really think Chicago has none then you don't know much of anything.
Chicago has plenty of international name recognition, its one of our top cities. San Francisco just has more for many of the reasons discussed. Its just a great compact tourist town and gets more international tourists. It has a very definite place in pop culture, a bit more quarky than Chicago.
I think a better comparison for Chicago would be a city like Miami or Vegas, maybe even Boston, but I think both SF and DC are out of its league.
I personally wouldn't go that far. I would say NYC and LA are in one league and everywhere else you mentioned is roughly in another league as far as "iconic" goes. Then again it's a weird topic... I could see Miami and Vegas and DC actually being more iconic at least to the international crowd than Chicago, SF, and Boston for that matter. Miami in particular. Not as many tangible/visual icons (Miami Beach obviously comes to mind) but just the name itself I think is more iconic plus I would call it an unofficial capital of Latin America. Vegas as well has arguably many many icons (mostly casinos but the strip itself as well). But a lot of this has to do with more international recognition due to the tourism in these cities. DC obviously being the capital is iconic (White House, etc).
This shows how out of touch you are with the average person... (Btw, a neighbourhood in a city a person has never been to really isn't "basic" geographic knowledge)
Yeah right! Come on, anywhere in the city??? Heck I could take pictures of downtown SF and if I don't have the bridges in it I guarantee more than 90% of people here wouldn't get it. Also, what if I show them a picture of a colourful house on a hill in Cincy and they say SF?
I'm even speaking from Western Europe at the moment, you guys really think people in Uzbekistan know or care about Haight/Ashbury???
Thank you. A good foreign opinion on this matter. Haight/Ashbury are NOT that well known to the average person. I consider myself average, and a born and raised American, I think it would be even less evident to the average foreigner.
Well that's sort of the issue isn't it? It's a bit difficult to speculate what foreigners (which is such a broad term) think of when they think of American icons. It's all conjecture, but I'd venture to guess for most it's (a) the Statue of Liberty and (b) the Hollywood Sign, and then a huge drop off.
And FWIW, Haight/Ashbury represents more than just a neighborhood. It symbolizes a major political/cultural movement which holds an important place in recent US history. So yes, it is iconic for those who care to educate themselves on the history of America.
You do know that Caesartl is a foreigner right? His location is Paris, so it's not difficult to speculate what a French opinion on this topic would be.
Let's not forget that what makes SF so unique is it packs a punch in just 49 square miles ! You can drive across SF in 10 minutes. Chicago, as impressive as it is, is much bigger at 240 sq. miles. To put that into perspective that would be like adding portions of the Bay and East Bay cities to SF proper.
You can really drive across San Francisco in 10 minutes?
San Francisco is extremely dense for a west coast city, and even an American city, read it ranks number 2 behind New York City and it's very compact. I'll give it that, but Chicago...as massive as it is in size at 240 square miles still manages a density of over 11,000 people per square mile.
I think it would be interesting to measure the urban neighborhoods in the uptown or downtown districts of each city and measure their density. Not that this is a density war, and I am not sure why there is such a value placed on density.
Thank you. A good foreign opinion on this matter. Haight/Ashbury are NOT that well known to the average person. I consider myself average, and a born and raised American, I think it would be even less evident to the average foreigner.
I find it extremely hard to believe that you have never heard of hippies, Flower Children, Summer of Love, etc. If you have never heard of such things, then that's on you, not on other people. The fact is that SF is famous for these things (among many other things).
I think a better comparison for Chicago would be a city like Miami or Vegas, maybe even Boston, but I think both SF and DC are out of its league.
I don't think SF is out Chicago's league. The poll results and most of the answers here show it's a relatively close battle. I do think it's interesting that given Chicago's huge size advantage over San Francisco that San Francisco is winning, and I'm not sure how Chicago would fare against other much smaller cities in this kind of debate.
I find it extremely hard to believe that you have never heard of hippies, Flower Children, Summer of Love, etc. If you have never heard of such things, then that's on you, not on other people. The fact is that SF is famous for these things (among many other things).
Of course I am familiar with hippies and Flower Children, but I am not familiar with "Haight/Ashburry" I had never heard of that until I started this thread. Granted I've never been to California, but I am an American, and if I'm not familiar with it...I highly doubt that foreigners would be familiar with a neighborhood that was the birth of hippie culture. It's almost like equating Arkansas to be well known because Bill Clinton was born there, come on.
You do know that Caesartl is a foreigner right? His location is Paris, so it's not difficult to speculate what a French opinion on this topic would be.
Well no offense to Caesartl, but I wasn't really considering his personal opinion but more thinking about opinions of foreigners in a general sense. And if you take a look at his post I quoted, he actually didn't say whether he was familiar with Haight/Ashbury personally (though maybe he'd care to enlighten us?) but rather questioned why someone in Uzbekistan would necessarily know/care about it. Which got me thinking that was a good point indeed, but a slippery one. I mean, why would they know/care about the Sears Tower? Golden Gate bridge? Etc. I would think because in many parts of the world access to information is limited still, many may only have a vague idea about American cultural icons and it's complete conjecture or anecdotalism to guess which ones. I took a stab and said Statue of Liberty and Hollywood Sign but who really knows?
Conversely, I've found many foreigners from the developed world, especially from Western Europe, do seem to know a good amount of US history, and quite often seem to know more than many Americans seem to. But Western Europeans are hardly representative of foreigners in general. Which brings us full circle back to my original point.
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Yeah right! Come on, anywhere in the city??? Heck I could take pictures of downtown SF and if I don't have the bridges in it I guarantee more than 90% of people here wouldn't get it. Also, what if I show them a picture of a colourful house on a hill in Cincy and they say SF?
